Ellis excited about trade to Ducks

No longer needed a great deal in Tampa Bay with Dwayne Roloson carrying the load for a playoff-bound team, Dan Ellis is eagerly looking to the chance to help his new squad make the postseason.

Ellis was acquired by the Ducks on Thursday for Curtis McElhinney in a swap of goalies largely relegated to backup status this season. But the four-year NHL veteran offers much more experience as a former starter -- something that McElhinney didn't have as he began to struggle mightily while trying to fill in for the ailing Jonas Hiller.

The Ducks' goaltending situation became a major issue when Hiller was sidelined again with what could be vertigo. Ray Emery, coming back from a serious hip injury, was recalled on Wednesday from the minor leagues after just three American Hockey League starts.

With Emery not having faced any shooters on the NHL level and McElhinney suddenly unable to meet the increased demands, the Ducks quickly made their move and Ellis is only happy to jump aboard while Hiller remains out.

Due to arrive in Southern California tonight, Ellis will join his new teammates on Friday morning and figures to make his debut that night against Minnesota.

"I've always taken the stance that I'll do anything for the team that I'm playing for," said Ellis, a four-year veteran with 142 games to his name. "And anything I can do to help now, anything I can do to benefit that team, I'm always willing to do. I'll put any personal stuff aside.

"I'm a Duck now. My goals is to help that team make the playoffs. If they want me in the net tomorrow, I will jump right in. I'm very excited. If they want me to sit on the bench, I'll do that and cheer my squad on. Whatever they want."

Ellis, 30, signed a two-year, $3-million deal as a free agent with Tampa Bay on the first day of free agency last summer and he split duties with Mike Smith until the Lightning acquired Roloson from the New York Islanders on New Year's Day.

From then on, Roloson took command of the net and Ellis made only four more starts. In 31 games with the Tampa Bay, Ellis was 13-7-6 with two shutouts, a 2.93 goals-against average and an .889 save percentage.

"The first part of the season didn't go exactly the way we would have liked to as a goaltending tandem with Smitty and I there," Ellis said. "And so they had to bring in Dwayne. They brought in Dwayne right when we kind of started to right the ship. But I think the opportunity to pick up Dwayne wouldn't have been there had they waited much longer.

"Right when we got things kind of turned around a little bit, we acquired Dwayne and he came in and provided instant stability. Being a veteran character person, he brought in some strong goaltending and put in some great games out there."

Ellis said it was a big adjustment to play goal in Guy Boucher's 1-3-1 forechecking system as opposed to the defense-first approach he flourished behind in Nashville early in his career.

"At the beginning of the year, there were things that were missing that maybe would have stopped certain opportunities from [turning into] scoring chances and stuff like that," Ellis said. "[Things] that they had just not implemented yet.

"As a goalie, it was your job to kind of make up for the lost areas at times. It was a system that gave up the middle a lot. It took us a while to learn to shut that down. By the time we had learned to shut it down, it [was] right about now."

Even with losing his job to Roloson, Ellis said he used the change in his role as an opportunity to pick up things from the longtime goalie while working in a system he was unfamiliar with.

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